Pholidobolus hillisi TORRES-CARVAJAL, VENEGAS, LOBOS, MAFLA-ENDARA & SALES-NUNES, 2014
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Pholidobolus hillisi
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| Higher Taxa | Gymnophthalmidae (Cercosaurinae), Sauria, Gymnophthalmoidea, Squamata (lizards) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Cuilanes of Hillis |
| Synonym | Pholidobolus hillisi TORRES-CARVAJAL, VENEGAS, LOBOS, MAFLA-ENDARA & SALES-NUNES 2014 |
| Distribution | Ecuador Type locality: Ecuador, Provincia Zamora-Chinchipe, near San Francisco Research Station on Loja-Zamora road, 3°57’57”S, 79°4’45”W, WGS84, 1,840 m elevation |
| Reproduction | oviparous (manual and phylogenetic imputation, fide Zimin et al. 2022) |
| Types | Holotype: QCAZ 4998 (Figs. 1, 2), adult male, 21 July 2012, collected by Santiago R. Ron, Andrés Merino, Fernando Ayala, Teresa Camacho, and Martin Cohen. Paratypes (5): ECUADOR: Provincia Zamora- Chinchipe: QCAZ 4999 (adult male), 5000 (juvenile female), same data as holotype; QCAZ 6840 (adult fe- male), 6842 (adult female), 6844 (adult male), San Fran- cisco Research Station, 3°58’14”S, 79°4’41”W, WGS84, 1,840 m, 29 October 2004, 9 June 2005, and 29 Septem- ber 2005, respectively, collected by Kristin Roos, Alban Pfeiffer, Andy Fries, Ulf Soltau, and Florian Werner. |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis: Pholidobolus hillisi is unique among species of Pholidobolus in having a distinct diagonal white stripe on each side of the chin, extending from the fourth genial to the fore limb (Fig. 3). It further differs from all species of Pholidobolus, except P. affinis, in having three supraoculars (two in P. macbrydei, P. montium, and P. prefrontalis). Pholidobolus affinis differs from the new species by having flanks with black reticulations on a reddish orange ground color (flanks brown in P. hillisi; Fig. 4). The new species also can be distinguished from P. montium and P. macbrydei by the presence of prefrontal scales (absent in the last two species). While P. hillisi shares with P. affinis and P. prefrontalis the presence of prefrontal scales, it differs from them in having a dark brown dorsum with a conspicuous light brown vertebral stripe (dorsum pale brown without a vertebral stripe in P. affinis and P. prefrontalis; Fig. 4). Furthermore, P. hillisi has fewer dorsal scales in transverse rows (28–31) than P. affinis (45–55), P. montium (35–50), P. prefrontalis (37–46), and P. macbrydei (31–43). Pholidobolus hillisi shares with all other recognized species of Pholidobolus the absence of a single transparent palpebral disc and the presence of a ventrolateral fold between fore and hind limbs. These characters distinguish members of Pholidobolus from members of its sister clade Macropholidus (Torres-Carvajal and Mafla-Endara 2013). |
| Comment | Abundance: only known from its original description (Meiri et al. 2017). |
| Etymology | Named after David M. Hillis, who has had a great impact in the development of the field of molecular systematics (e.g., Hillis et al. 1996). In particular, he published a classic paper on evolutionary genetics of Pholidobolus lizards, where he compared some phylogenetic tree reconstruction techniques and emphasized the importance of phylogenetics in biogeography (Hillis 1985). |
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